Over the last 150 years, gun designers have sought to transform warfare with artillery of superlative range and power, from William Armstrong's 19th-century "monster guns to the latest research into hypersonic electro-magnetic railguns.

Taking a case study approach, Superguns explains the technology and role of the finest monster weapons of each era. It looks at the 1918 "Wilhelm Gun, designed to shell Paris from behind the German trenches; the World War II "V-3 gun built to bombard London across the Channel; the Cold War atomic cannons of the US and Soviet Union; and the story of Dr Gerald Bull's HARP program and the Iraqi "Supergun he designed for Saddam Hussein. Illustrated throughout, this is an authoritative history of the greatest and most ambitious artillery pieces of all time.